Suokalbis is Lithuanian for a secret contract; thus, obviously, I cannot reveal to you the motivation behind the title of this bar which one finds in the lavish 19th-century Russian building that houses the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. People that dance there on the tables on the late Friday nights could be easily caught on Fellini or Kusturica’s camera. I remember that once I was forced to dance to Manu Chao with a drunken middle-aged woman and that after escaping her I lost a chess game to the oldest client in the café. Quite a few famous writers and poets are believed to have spent their very last nights in this place.

Phil Collins (the artist, not the musician) was so in love with Suokalbis he promised to come back and make a film about the place. However, the same night he went to the 2nd International Depeche Mode fan meeting and promised the same, which is why the café is still one of the best kept secrets of Vilnius. VK, 2009